I was wondering what street-ridden NSRs do to keep cool in case they run into real traffic. My MC21 came with no radiator fan so is it safe to assume they usually don't? My street RZ350 has no fan as well and when I first tried to commute with it, the coolant got pretty hot from crawling in traffic.

So my guesses are that everyone just pulls over and shuts down if needed or we just use them as weekend tools?

Jae

Mine gets warm when trying to get through the city. Stopping and idleing every 5mts.

I havn't seent it go past the 80 mark on the temp guage however. Once it starts moving, it drops the heat pretty quick i find

I try to avoid the city and areas like that. Mainly for all the dicks that try to tell me i need a rebuild as the 'piston slap' is pretty bad. They have no idea when i say its the clutch. Is it broken they ask . . . .
_________________
Winning isn't everything, but loosing isn't anything

Steve, Matt and I ride ours through town purely because of the noise they make!

You won't ride and NSR anywhere much hotter than Thailand, and a stock (delimited) NSR will run there with nothing more than the OEM radiator.

It doesn't exactly get scorching hot in the UK even in the middle of summer, but with the F3 'box and a 1st gear good for over 60mph, my MC21 needs plenty of rpm in slow moving traffic and has never cooked itself. Steve's '21 makes well over 70hp and still runs a stock rad too.

It was pretty cool on Blue Haze Day at the Ace Cafe last year, but both bikes happily tootled through central London traffic. Fans are for the bore-strokes.
_________________
Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

Please keep all responses to Forum posts on the Forum so that others may benefit.

Please DO NOT PM me for technical advice. My time is precious, and you will probably receive a faster response on the Forum anyway.

Check us out on Facebook! Please "like" our page!

I just noticed mine running hot the last few days. Never went past the last mark at the top, but I've never seen it that high yet... Had me pretty nervous. I was running it slow up some steep hills, I don't know how everyone elses is, but my bike hates it !!! Loading up, having to do alot of clutch work ... But as soon as i got it moving, it went right back to normal. I'm guessing all is fine ??
_________________
MC21
04 NSR50R
93 CBR F2
98 CBR F3 track bike
95 VFR750
89 FL400R Pilot
90 FZR 4/600

I recon South East QLD over here in Aussieland would be getting close to thailand. 40+ degree ambient with over 85 percent humidity. Excelent for making HP

Its like riding into a massive hair dryer. But still, never seen it rise above much above 80. I guess the nice alloy radiator besides looking good, works well

Redline make a product call 'Water Wetter' It helps with cooling hot engines.
http://www.redlineoil.com/products_coolant.asp
_________________
Winning isn't everything, but loosing isn't anything

both my pretty much stock 28 and fontyyys 28 both hit 100 degrees on the first london big smoke evening!

Something to think about...

Toyko is Japan's largest city, and probably (my speculation) has the highest concentration of bikes of all types. Average yearly temperature (bit of web research) is around 16°C (61°F), with a winter low of -1° (31°) and max recorded summer high of 42° (107°) in 2004.

The manufactures design the systems to at least cope with this variation in temperature... they have to! They can't say "here's the keys to your new 250/400/lemming-mobile, but you can only ride it between when the temperature is between 15°~30° in because our cooling system is crap!"...
_________________
Andy.
NSR-WORLD.COM

Please keep all responses to Forum posts on the Forum so that others may benefit.

Please DO NOT PM me for technical advice. My time is precious, and you will probably receive a faster response on the Forum anyway.

Check us out on Facebook! Please "like" our page!

So in summary it seems:

Normal to go up to or even past the 80 mark on the coolant gauge.
- How hot is it when you enter the "red" zone?

And bottom line, hey, it's a Honda so don't sweat it!

Thanks y'all. I just needed a warm fuzzy in case I decide to pursue titling/registering my MC21 for some street use in the future. I live in the DC area and traffic here really sucks (like Tokyo, L.A., etc...)

Jae

when i did the oldham carnival (if i am remembering right) i boiled my 21 2 or 3 times in the space of 3 miles the temp gage never dropped below the top but it was fine! on a funny note the two lads on harley reps
boiled there clutch fluid

My CRF250x has an optional fan available (I have it). I'm surprised the NSR didn't have something like that. BTW: the fan on the CRF never come on, and I live n one of the hottest and most humid climates.
_________________
james
Its not how fast you go...Its how you go fast.
MC21 Rothmans
RS250
RC31
CRF250X
748R
Porsche (many)
http://members.rennlist.com/j911brick/rennlist3_002.htm

it sounds like you haven't had the bike too long. have you changed the coolant?

with any new bike regardless of the promises and assurances given me by the seller, if i plan to keep it, i'll change the oil, coolant and brake fluid asap. i know it sounds stupid and basic but that coolant could have the same engine coolant properties as LAVA.

i've never experience boiling on any of my bikes ever (no i'm not Mr Slow either and like a thrash as much as anyone) but my mates sometime get this after cooking the clutch.

Oh yeah, I even switched over to "Engine Ice" for some track days. Burped, purged the cooling system as well but it still can climb in temps when putting around the neighborhood roads at stoplights. Just wanted to check with other owners about how to react to the "red zone" on the temp gauge.

Jae

Maybe you have a real problem that needs to be addressed, like worn pistons or crank.
_________________
james
Its not how fast you go...Its how you go fast.
MC21 Rothmans
RS250
RC31
CRF250X
748R
Porsche (many)
http://members.rennlist.com/j911brick/rennlist3_002.htm

Could be. I was planning on doing a top end soon anyway. At least it's not needed as frequently as the Honda RS250 I owned previously...

This mite not quite fit in here but I drive a '94 Honda civic 150 in addition to the NSR. Came home one day and the car started to run super bad, the pinging noise sounding like marbles in my engine didnt calm me down either. When the car eventually SHOOK to a halt under a tree on the side of the road, white smoke came from under the bonnet. The temp guage was WAY past the red and the radiator had burst due to the super high heat.

At first I thought it was all over, engine rebuild etc. etc. All I replaced was a broken thermostat (it didnt open, causing the problem) and a blown radiator. Compression test showd well in the green and the car runs for about 3.5 years now after the incident without trouble.

Honda products are super tuff and 2-strokes in general are very solid engines anyway so, youre getting the best of both worlds.